Agrarian urbanism and Vertical Farming

4. Urban agriculture: A revolution for a solution The Urban Agriculture Network has defined urban agriculture as: “An industry that produces processes, and markets food, fuel, and other outputs, largely in response to the daily demand of consumers within a town, city, or metropolis, on many types of privately and publicly held land and water bodies found throughout intra-urban and peri-urban areas.

Typically urban agriculture applies intensive production methods, frequently using and reusing natural resources and urban wastes, to yield a diverse array of land-, water-, and air-based fauna and flora, contributing to the food security, health, livelihood, and environment of the individual, household, and community” The Council of Agriculture, Science and Technology (CAST) defines urban agriculture to include aspects of environmental health, remediation, and recreation: “Urban agriculture is a complex system encompassing a spectrum of interests, from a traditional core of activities associated with the production, processing, marketing, distribution, and consumption, to a multiplicity of other benefits and services that are less widely acknowledged and documented.

These include recreation and leisure; economic vitality and business entrepreneurship, individual health and well-being; community health and wellbeing; landscape beautification; and environmental restoration and remediation” Globally, it takes the shape of a social movement which aims at creating selfsustaining cities, fostering community collaboration and evolving a network that thrived on community holism and shared ethos for nature and farming practices.

Despite the change brought upon to the architecture of the city and the nature of 20